These are seismic and unsettled times in north London.
At one end of the Seven Sisters Road, Tottenham Hotspur are staring down the barrel of a shock relegation, which would rank as one the biggest under-performances in the history of the English top flight.
Another home defeat when they play Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday evening would edge Spurs one step closer to the Championship.
At the other, Arsenal are continuing to chase an historic double, with Mikel Arteta’s side heading into this weekend six points clear at the top of the Premier League table and into a Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid.
And yet the mood among Arsenal fans is anxious ahead of Sunday’s visit to Manchester City, which is widely billed as a title decider.
After last weekend’s home defeat to Bournemouth, memories of three consecutive second-place finishes and previous collapses from positions of strength are back at the forefront of their supporters’ minds.
To gauge the mood, The Athletic sent Dan Kilpatrick, a Spurs fan, and Arsenal supporter Nnamdi Onyeagwara to north London to see which club is feeling the heat more…
Comfort among the enemy
Strange to say it, but there’s an odd comfort to being at the Emirates, surrounded by Arsenal fans.
On the face of it, now more than ever, any Spurs supporter should want to run a mile from this place.
Bragging rights in north London have never been more one-sided and it is increasingly plausible – probable, even? – that Spurs will be relegated in the same season as Arsenal win a first league title in 23 years. It could even happen concurrently, and they would have to invent a whole new Saint’s day for that.
Yet being among the enemy is comforting because as a Spurs fan who has nearly lost hope, Arsenal are all I have left. They are rattling, deliciously, and there is a whiff of paranoia unique to Arsenal in the air ahead of their Champions League quarter final decider against Sporting CP – which is followed by Sunday’s six-pointer at City.
“We could bottle it,” acknowledges Cem, an Arsenal supporter and podcaster who has arrived early for the Sporting game despite not having a ticket (which somehow feels very Arsenal to me).
Another Arsenal collapse would take the edge off a first Spurs relegation since 1977, and we could yet manage to have the last laugh for the second season in a row. It’s one hell of a drug, schadenfreude, and a powerful alternative to hope.
The feeling, though, appears to be mutual. The Arsenal fans milling around the Emirates are clear that a Spurs relegation would soften the blow of another second-place finish.
Nnamdi and I get a more mixed reaction when asking fans if there is a part of them that doesn’t want Spurs to go down. For Cem, it’s five per cent (he has family members who are Spurs) and another Arsenal fan, Dozie, says there’s no part of him that wants to see their rivals in the Championship.
“I want them to be giving us six points every season,” he says.
Nnamdi feels like a good barometer of the mood, too preoccupied by his own team — and Sunday — to take much enjoyment from Spurs’ current plight.
“I enjoyed it a lot more last season,” he says. “Then the Europa League (win for Spurs) was a gut punch. This year I’ve been (like), ‘Let’s focus on ourselves’. And if Spurs go down it’s a bonus.
“There’s obviously joy in certain defeats (for Spurs) but when it’s coupled up with (Arsenal) losing to Bournemouth, it’s hard to think about.”
He has been a gracious companion for our visit to north London. Earlier at Spurs, where we tried and failed to find fans who would talk to us, he complimented the stadium. Easy to do from a position of strength.
He is, though, desperate for Spurs to go down and wouldn’t miss the rivalry because “in the age we’re in, and the social media culture, the (Manchester) United rivalry, the Chelsea rivalry, the City rivalry have got a lot more heated than they were”. (Sorry Nnamdi but this also feels very Arsenal to me).
Spending the afternoon with an Arsenal fan has clarified something: obvious to say, perhaps, but there is a different kind of dread surrounding the clubs.
At Spurs, it is bleak and existential, borne of your club facing an irreversible stain and humiliation, and being plunged into the unknown.
At Arsenal there is lingering paranoia, which may yet translate to the players, but it is laced with excitement — expectation, even.
As Nnamdi puts it when I ask him about the City game. “I’m playing the worst case scenario in my head. That being said, if we do pull it out of the bag and get the job done, it’s just going to be monumental.”
Before we leave north London, we want to speak to one more Arsenal fan and a young family strolls down the steps at the front of the Emirates to street level.
Turns out they’re Rangers fans, the parents on a mission to show their two young sons as many European football stadia as possible.
“At least Spurs have a better stadium than Arsenal,” I tell them. The dad disagrees. More feeling here, apparently, and he likes the statues.
They’re not interested in Wembley but might to go to Loftus Road, home of Queens Park Rangers, next. Sound, might see you there next season.
Dan Kilpatrick
‘We could bottle it again’
Our time on the Lilywhite side of north London is encapsulated by an interaction we have with two Spurs fans as they enter the club shop.
They decline to speak to The Athletic for this story because: “You couldn’t print what we want to say.”
Coming out of White Hart Lane train station, the skies are poetically gloomy. As if the weather is paying homage to a large chunk of the Tottenham squad’s performances this season: Bleak, foul, and adamant that it would ruin the day of anyone that came into contact with it.
The owner of a sandwich shop opposite the stadium tries to force a smile as he speaks to us, and the rain begins to fall on Tottenham’s beautiful, almost 63,000-capacity stadium.
“It is funny being here today because you are sort of reminded of the scale of the club,” Dan tells me as we stand yards away from the ‘Europa League 2025 winners’ sign. “The stadium is the best thing about Spurs. To think there is a very good chance that this could be hosting Championship football next season is kind of mind-boggling, yet a lot of us Spurs fans are accepting it now.
“This is an unhappy place this season. There is a lot of anger. The stadium was supposed to change the club, but you could almost make the argument that our downward trajectory coincided with the move to the new stadium.
“I was here for the trophy parade a few months ago. It was an incredible day, the sun was out and there were people climbing on those roofs. I was standing on that road, actually, just there by the church. That should have been an occasion for Spurs to build on.”
Just over four miles south towards Islington, it was all very different.
After two trains and a bit of a walk (a 25-minute journey all in all), Dan and I pop out of Holloway Road train station and walk to the Emirates Stadium.
In the most obvious example of pathetic fallacy, the clouds vanished, the sun began to shine, and you couldn’t go a few yards without seeing a gleaming football fan, and unlike in Tottenham, they are all prepared to have a conversation about their title-chasing team.
On the red side of north London we walk around the stadium, talking to some confident Arsenal fans…and some not-so-confident Arsenal fans.
Fans from different walks of life and with different club affiliations (Sporting were in town for their Champions League quarter-final second leg, and their travelling away fans are milling around) are taking in the pre-game atmosphere.
To prove the variety of people that day, we see West Ham United midfielder Tomas Soucek enjoying what looked like a casual walk around the stadium with his family. With his side two points above Spurs in the Premier League table, maybe he was seeking some added motivation to help land the final blow to Tottenham’s survival hopes with just a handful of games left?
After we finish deliberating over the reason for the 31-year-old’s north London stroll, we start speaking to some Arsenal fans.
“First, I want us (Arsenal) to win the title,” Justin Nangmo tells The Athletic. “But, Tottenham being relegated would be the cherry on the cake.”
“We have not won the league for 22 years,” says Dozie. “I was a teenager the last time we won the league, and now I am an old man. A lot of our younger fans have never seen us win the league.”
“We’ve got to do it,” Ashley Parker says with his infant son stood next to him, donning a newly-purchased Bukayo Saka shirt from the Arsenal shop. “We’ve got to win the league. I’d rather us win the league than them lot go down.”
The prospect of a Tottenham relegation amuses Galina. “It would be hilarious,” she says. “Would be properly funny.”
On the whole, it has been a pretty fantastic season for Arsenal. They have led the way at the top of the table for the majority of the campaign and have been largely imperious in the Champions League with a semi-final tie against Atletico Madrid to come.
On the other hand, the Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City on March 22 was a stark reality check. The shock FA Cup exit in the quarter-final to Championship side Southampton on April 4 further shook the Arsenal fanbase.
And then came the home defeat to Bournemouth. Did someone say “second again, ole ole?”
“I’m used to us not winning the league, and we could bottle it again,” Cem says. “If City beat us this weekend, I think they will win the league. Actually, I know that for a fact.”
As Arsenal fans (me included) continue to bite our nails and try to crawl over the finish line, we must remember that a couple of miles down the road, our noisy neighbours have it much worse.
“If Spurs survive on the final day and Arsenal finish second, Spurs fans would be dancing on the streets, and Arsenal fans would be in tears.” Dan optimistically says.
“Objectively, everybody would know that Arsenal have had more of an enjoyable season. But football is about the journey, but also about the endings.
“Arsenal fans would love it if Spurs went down, but surely you do want a competitive rival. Derby days are supposed to be the highlight of the season and Arsenal will miss the North London derby next season.
“But, if Spurs get relegated, Arsenal finishing second would take the edge off a bit. Going down would be so miserable, but I would take some bitter enjoyment out of watching Arsenal be miserable in a different way.
“That being said, if Arsenal win the league and Spurs go down on the same day, it would be a day that fans sing about for generations to come.”
Nnamdi Onyeagwara